slang

I'd vote a lawyer Seems like restrictive legalese thing as in you can't be an author of part of a song, but just an author of a song (which must be both melody and lyrics). So on the copyright web page it credits Dan Heath on music and lyrics for Bel Air. I'm sure he's a sensitive guy, but I don't take him to be a lyrics person. However, my Paradise EP liner notes say "Lyrics and melody by Lana Del Rey". "melody" I'm taking to be vocal melody.

Great researching. LDR seems seriously un-messedUp and well-integrated. Her extra-curricular creds seem good enough for a choice ivy-league school, yet I think she chose Fordham because it was closer to the music scene she wanted to be a part of. The age issue is interesting, but I have a problem believing she could lie about her age without being found out (birth certificates are public records?). On the other hand she's modeling at age 18 months and the trench coat picture is unnerving. But still her being an early walker could also mean she was precocious and, if so, she probably did skip a grade.

What I understand is pretty meager: The ... AKA Lizzy Grant album is a special case that probably has its own reasons for *aborted* release. I won't even attempt to understand them, and maybe that's not what you mean by "unreleased" anyway. The Sirens album, I suspect, is an album she meant to release but was probably told it would never sell by all the labels she brought it to (I recall her saying that about her "first" album in some older interview, sorry for the lack of receipts). As for the unaligned unreleases, some of these she leaked for self-promotion (I'm thinking like Elvis, Disco, Axl Rose Husband, You Can be the Boss), and most came from the "leak holocaust(s)". To me these unreleased, together with Sirens and AKA, are the most important mysteries about her. If I were to assume that she likes all her unreleased work (which I mostly do), I would have to conclude that there are major problems with the music industry that prevents her from releasing and/or producing more of her older stuff. These would be like legal snafus because her collaborators are unsigned or on different labels. Wish an entertainment lawyer would jump in and comment. The "she's a perfectionist" theory is a bit scary, as it implies she really doesn't know how good she is. So I guess the best-case scenario for me is that she's a really bad procrastinator, specifically for her older work.

I'd feel bad for LDR if I knew artists like Goldfrapp and St. Vincent *were* regularly played on the radio, but I suspect they aren't (don't know as I don't listen to radio). On the other hand, if you consider Spotify a kind of radio, it's clear that LDR resembles a pop A-lister more -- with respect to audience size -- than the other artists I just mentioned (whom I also really like). In Spotify, follow the artist name link, that appears on their icon, and it will show actual numbers of listens for an artist's 10 most popular songs (unlike the popularity bars). LDR looks more like Katy Perry (numbers-wise!!) than St. Vincent. With Tropico I'm expecting 3 videos on Youtube (one for each song). I'm not sure whether the full piece will be on Youtube or not, although I hope it will. As for LDR's ppl sucking, is she in full control or in no control? Do fans "polarize" much on how much control they believe she has? I tend toward the full-control view, but I really don't know.

Fun thread. This is going to be in the same vein as (i.e., similar to) some other suggestions. There's also at least one thing I wish would actually happen: 1) Track list for ArtPop reveals a Zedd/Gaga remix of Lana Del Rey's "So Legit". (Did anybody else get goosebumps at Gaga's phony booing at the VMA's or the fact Gaga pierced her nose around the time of the Leak?) 2) Lana Del Rey releases 3 CDs of old material on the same day (11/11/13)! a) Sirens b) AKA Lizzy Grant and c) "PopTart" under her new persona Rana Del Lay ("It contains my most risque leaked songs, so I thought I'd better use a pseudonym to keep from confusing my fans" -- the artist explained). 3) Lana Del Rey and Kesha decide to form an all girls Beatles tribute band--that only plays original music! Roisin Murphy says yes to the McCartney role (after Gaga says no). Azealia Banks considered for Ringo. (Not dissing Azealia; there are excellent song writers that are also drummers, and Rap is pretty percussive). 4) Lana Del Rey has a nervous breakdown following the Positive Hype Wave of Lorde's meteoric rise to fame ("What the fuck, it was equal and opposite to what happened to me! How the fuck would you go switch it up and then replace me?!" -- the artist explained). Under the leadership of Miley Cyrus, pop Artists unite to create a covers CD to cheer her up. Confirmed track line up so far: Axl Rose Husband -- Axl Rose Last Girl on Earth -- Elton John (NOT dissing his sexual orientation but really think the melody suits him!) Paradise -- Katy Perry Jealous Girl -- Lady Gaga (perhaps a light-hearted diss, but I bet she'd slay it on stage) Go Go Dancer -- Kesha Making Out -- Sheryl Crow Damn You -- Mariah Carey Backfire -- Adele Noir -- Kate Bush Tired of Singing the Blues -- Fiona Apple Lizzy Grant -- Dum Dum Miley Cyrus -- Live or Die

When I listened to pop radio they hardly ever annouced what was playing. The one time I saw the Cedric mutation of summertime sadness on MTV it was clearly labeled LDR vs. CG (wo acronyms), and on spotify and youtube the two tracks have distinct labels (with many more plays and views to the original BTD release). IMO, it's ok to give CG credit for making SS relevant to a specific music consuming group, but it's not ok to say LDR is irrelevant to that group given the sheer number of EDM remixes done on her other work. I also wonder what the effect of releasing this would be: Many on youtube mistake this as a remix (at least I'm assuming it's a mistake). As the musical observer says: "Little do they know that she’s somber and tragic as hell, and ranges far from the successful female vocals + EDM formula of today." Little does he know what the leaks or even AKA have implied.

Yeah, Dan Heath was in the liner notes after Emile. My bad. It's sad that she's sad about Black Beauty, but I'd still buy her next release on the basis of enjoying her older leaks. It's more the perfection or non-perfection of those that I'm fixated on, a lot of which seem complete enough songs. If something about the music industry prevented her releasing more of the leaks (for instance, the Princess Superstar sessions), what was it? If she just thought the songs weren't "perfect" enough then ... Punk rock, punk rock The boys used to punch each other in the face and girls were walking around wasted And everyone had a good night, come back in sunlight Punk rock, rock, rock by which I mean "perfect" seems contradictory to "punk", which to my mind isn't just a historical rock style, but more of an attitude of being disinhibited and honest/heartfelt. The thing that fascinates me about her older leaks is that she's got that.

Just some quick reactions: "Like Dan [Daniel Heath, who co-wrote “Blue Jeans”], who’s not into pop music but rather, a composer for scores and studied under Hans Zimmer." I'm thinking Dan Heath co-wrote Bel Air and this is interviewer error. "Are you going to move forward with work on them, or do you feel too discouraged because of the leaks? Lana: I do feel discouraged, yeah. I don’t really know what to put on the record. But I guess I could just put them on and see what happens. Each time I write… I’ll never write a song if I don’t think it’s going to be perfect for the record." She should do exactly that and see what happens, so I would think no impact of record production. The idea of writing a song and releasing it only if it's perfect for the record seems a bit, well ... anal. The people she admires most as pop composers probably don't adhere to that standard. And to say she doesn't know what to put on the record? Let me suggest the 3 independent realizations of Every Man Gets His Wish, for starters. She has more choice than most pop artists. I also like the idea of an artist that doesn't quite know what to put on a record and ends up giving you like 70 mins of music (e.g., Tori Amos). There is no shame in that, LOL, although I bet the record execs hate it. "Steven Mertens, who made my first record [editor’s note: David Kahne is credited as the producer of her debut, 2010’s Lana Del Ray a.k.a. Lizzy Grant; Mertens is a member of the Brooklyn band Spacecamp]." This has got to be SIRENS, right? I wouldn't mind a 2nd Sirens-esque album! Or even a Sirens release. She could do it as May Jailer (why not, novelists often go by different names in different genres). It's the digital age damn it! It's supposed to be easy to release things. What's up with the inhibition to release non-standard non-current work. It's as if music industry pundits (and fans) dislike an artist who happens to be excellent at different styles. "I’m not as interested in flip-floppers." Yes, but ones reaction to music is often like that. Jealous Girl, Never Let Me Go, Back to the Basics, Scarface are songs I initially didn't like much and now think are masterpieces. It's not quite clear what kind of flip-floppingness she's referring to if not musical taste, but changing musical taste is hard and is usually met with aversion and polarization (so she should feel better about her reception). Finally, @'s comment about the Youtube behavior of certain leaks being different is very interesting. I've often thought there are reasons behind the varying behaviors of different leaks. I don't think Black Beauty's staying there should mean it won't be on the album, because Video Games, which would be as pre-exposed as BB ended up on Born to Die.

I'm really surprised So Legit stays up on youtube, where leaks like Daytona Meth, Scarface get blocked quickly and stayed blocked. I suppose LDR might have leaked this song herself to prevent a "real" leak at exactly the same time of the ArtPop release, which would seem in poorer taste. As it is, the song gets to be old news before ArtPop (as @@keanefar implied in the Lyrics thread for it). I'm still hoping there's a So Legit track on Artpop that happens to be a Gaga/Rey collaboration. What a shock to the system (press/fans) that would be?

The song itself is not too great when compared to others of similar style (Disco, Elvis), imo. There are lots of basic questions. Was Rebecca (who shared Maha Maha,and others), the first person to give away the subject matter of the song? The only thing I heard about Gaga dissing before was in something like Lizzy's twitter. Is everybody happy with the date of this song being about 4 years ago? Does the Williamsburg concert and a coke commercial reference coincide with the dating? Stuff like that could have better discussion from the LMs. The lyrics of the song are cryptic ("You’re hurt, I know my words don’t hurt, yeah"; "I see you walking 'round in your pearls"). I agree with @@TrailerParkDarling that it is ultimately flattering to write a song about another artist, although (as Rebbeca pointed out on her blog) it is as much about a kind of jealousy (or perplexity?) of LDR's as it is about Gaga. LDR can't be said to dislike Gaga's methods because she uses them (in her own way). As for their music, I would rather LDR be able to write a Gaga-esque song/video and vice versa, without fans getting upset for them being like each other or for busting out of their supposed musical niche. The timing of this leak is intentional, so if you don't mind being manipulated by God knows who, you can let your opinion of either artist change post leak.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B47mX18J2zQ Lapa Ann thinks it's "[Oh?] my soul forgot"

I haven't even seen Scarface and I was LOL at the start of it. There is something really sexy about LDR and Pacino (?) saying "Don't **** with me" at different times. Colliding worlds, indeed, but there is also an awesome amount of lyrics, vocals, beats, and iconic movie soundbytes in less than 2.5 mins. Aaron Lacrate tweeted (July 13) he was glad it leaked.

A retweet is neither a denial or affirmation. But it does make one wonder what to think, and it's interesting that the person who originally tweeted about LDR (or was it his friend that blogged about it?) ultimately puts positive spin on LDR's retweet. "Lolita" by Nabokov is an important work in LDR's mind, so many have said, so in order to understand her I read the book a few months ago. I still don't know if Nabokov was ever accused of being pro-pedophilia for having written that book. Without giving away plot details, the Lolita character does seem to be more mature than her years and seems aware and manipulative of the pedophile's character. I'd really like to know when LDR read the book, but I'm guessing it may have been after her "boarding-school" days, and perhaps her experiences there are why the book resonated with her. Not trying to over-analyze her (but what else am I supposed to do here?). Then there is "Lolita", her song. Having reviewed the lyrics (by listening and with directlyrics, I bought Lolita as an MP3), the song's perspective is of a younger *girl* who obviously has a strong effect on *boys* her own age, which implies to me that she's not a girl but a woman at this point. "Off to the Races" I do have the lyrics to. There is an obvious shout out to Nabokov ("light of my life, fire of my loins"), but the rest of the song also seems to be about a younger *woman* (with a Las Vegas past), not an under-aged kid. Are there songs from AKA more dubious than these? Maybe, but I'd hardly say the Lolita thing with her strongly suggests under-aged sex.

I'd love something like "The Lizzy Grant Archives, vol. 1", with more to follow. Releasing the leaks would mean the end of those mutilated and pitched youtube bootlegs (they'd be replaced by good bootlegs, lol) and the possibility of seeing her perform some older stuff live. The argument for better producing (but not necessarily radically changing) is archiving as well as future commercial viability. There is no such thing as old music. People are born every day that know neither LDR nor Bach.

"Okay, let’s talk about feminism. What’s your take on feminism? To be honest, I don’t really have one. I have a great appreciation for our world’s history. I learn from my own mistakes, I learn from the mistakes we’ve made as a human race. But I think we’ve gotten to a good place as women and we’ll just keep naturally progressing. That’s kind of how I feel about it." LDR really did do a bad job at NOT suggesting the global scope, when she framed her answer. I see that now. Given that, I also see the "feminism issue" as much more specific to her particular response to that particular question (and not general aspects of her work or persona). So the question is something like: why did she not mention how messed up women's rights are in other parts of the world (for example, being shot and killed for going to school). Like many have already said, I think she was focusing on her (undeniably better) part of the world. I would give her the benefit of that doubt because I was similarly focused. But suppose the question had been less vague and the interview less fixated on her career? Something like: Do you think women are treated nicely all over the world? She would have answered differently, I think. I hope a future interviewer asks her something like: What are three things you regret saying in interviews, and how would you clarify them? One can hope her response would not be something she (or her fans) would later regret. At least then we'd find out if she reads her past interviews.

I disliked it more in her earlier interviews, where she claims that criticism is driving her to drink or some kind of self destruction. That was the low point for me. This article actually lifts my spirits relative to those points, because I think she is recovering from that. The rest is just a demonstration that people can read the same things with different perspectives. There is also some selective thoughts on EvilEntity's perspectives (given in French-like quotes). <<Bringing up the subject of being criticized as anti-feminist, bitching about it, then expressing complacent views on feminism and denying obvious inspiration by female icons>> The feminism issue was covered clearly, I think. She's in support of feminism, but not there, in her art, to support it. Her love-lorn songs are really typical of pop and to say that LDR means anything specifically anti-feminist by them is just "anti-her", because most everybody else is guilty of it. And "Ride" is just "her story", whether it be fiction or autobiographical. And songs like "push me down" or "making out" are not lifestyle recommendations but character studies. Liz Phair got it right in her "back-handed" support piece for LDR, which basically said LDR's expressing things of-interest-to-LDR and portraying herself in a persona of her choosing is defensible as "feminism". Maybe that's not exactly what Liz meant, but that's what I take her to mean (she didn't talk much about LDR's music, unfortunately). Here's the link: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/02/04/liz-phair-on-why-lana-del-rey-scares-rocks-boys-club/ As for Female icons, I think she dyes her hair brown to be more like Norma Jean. I don't think she wants to promote her being the next Marilyn, although it's clear that she likes Marilyn, or Britney, or Nina Simone. I don't think she "emulates" any of them, but she likes them. Inspiration was not directly asked about, it was influence on LDR's (non-musical) style. <<Denying she cares about her appearance when she certainly does>> What was implied to me was "that was then, this is now", or that her appearance is now uncomfortably an important feature of her professional life, but before her "breakout" she didn't take as much effort as she does now. What makes my assertion confusing (even to me) is that Lizzy Grant is (was?) still beautiful. She just wasn't a model or a superstar yet. <<Stating she has a degree in metaphysics even though Fordham does not offer a degree in metaphysics (and as Maru pointed out there is some doubt whether she even graduated at all)>> I believe she did graduate. I thought I remember seeing a sentence about "dropping out" removed from her wikipedia entry, because somebody actually went to the Fordham records and verified it, but when I looked at Wikipedia for discussion of it I couldn't find it. BTW the degree would be in philosophy not metaphysics, but it's costumary for people to refer more specifically when describing what their degree is about. There is also a wikipedia page for notable Fordham Alumni, and she is listed in the entertainment section. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fordham_University_people#Entertainment Did she just attend or fully graduate? Well what's the evidence that she didn't graduate? I too was perplexed by the recent article quote about dropping out, but figured it as a fact check error. <<Hurling accusations of media slander against her and her family about things she continues to lie about in the same breath>> I think it was more the personal and musical character assasination of media reviews that hurt her and the slander came from the blogosphere. Go back and read the NY times, LA times, and Rollingstone reviews of BTD and come to your own conclusion. LDR underestimates her influence in changing people's opinion of "5-star-critic" music reviews. <<Falsely claiming that she doesn't have money and that her family never had any money>> Yes, rehab and college take money, but I think her focus of denial was narrower. It's always been about her daddy buying her career that she denies. He probably helped her buy back the rights to AKA and supported her as a father would. Also she may not have had money at all times, because she dropped off the parental radar by her choice. <<Bitching about a lack of control of her image and how the media portrays her>> I like the paragraph about her public vs. private disconnect, because it possibly says something about where she wanted to go in popular music or what she wanted herself to mean vis a vis popular music. This is still an unresolved question for me. LDR: "There is a disconnect, yeah. I spent the last ten years in community service and writing folk songs. I don’t give a fuck about what I look like. Saying I came from billions of dollars is crazy. We never had any money. I feel, as a person who grew up reading about and being inspired by other figures with integrity, to kind of be turned into the antithesis of that is not what I planned. It’s the way it’s going right now, but I deal with it as it comes." I like the allusion to Sirens (and Sirens-like songs). However, it's the last two sentences that interest me the most. It's hard not to see the "Lana Del Rey" persona as a foot-in-the-door technique to get popular, in a sense similar to Gaga, Adele, Perry, Kesha, and then to do something with her status. I don't consider this an authenticity rehash, as my thinking is that the persona was a tool to get noticed, but it's the quality of her work that got her famous. I'm hoping what she wanted to do with her status was bitch-slap the music business in the constructive sense of making it easier for diverse and retro kinds of music to become popular. Still words are vague. Is she talking about her public image at the crest of the negative hype wave, or her public image "right now" (as she appears to say). If it's her public image "right now", then there may have been something revealed, if that is the thing turning into the "antithesis" of what she planned. Crappy interviewer for not getting clarification or digging further. <<Judgmental and pretentious statements that other people don't care about music/poetry/art as much as her and Barrie in the same interview she says music isn't her primary focus a pervasive attitude of defensiveness and victim-playing throughout>> I'll recap part of that: "Interviewer: You don’t feel you have a group of people in music who you necessarily connect to—a scene, let’s say, or a group of peers? What you talk about publicly and in interviews—say, listening to the The Doors or Dylan—it all seems “normal”. But I think what you do is not normal, actually. Well, I thought so, too. I thought my tastes and likes were pretty normal, but then I met everyone and I was like, “These people don’t actually care about music and art. They want to be cool.” I never met anyone who cared about music as deeply as me and my boyfriend, or who really cared about poetry—who really lived it and breathed it. I haven’t met anyone so far. I just can’t affiliate with those people." In an earlier post, I speculated she was forgetful, but maybe she's focusing too much on specific baddies and a specific kind of badness in baddies (such as hearing "the Doors and Bob Dylan, who are they?" or "no longer relevant" an awful lot). Also should we interpret the answer as including Rick Nowels and Justin Parker (that would be really interesting, if so). But at the end of the day, I really don't know how she's interpreting the words "scene", "peers", and "met", "those people". I don't even know if she heard all the words in the question (e.g., peer?), or had a chance to review the interview before it went to press. The interviewer is again crappy for not clarifying what is going to seem inflammatory later. I understand why people are put off by this response, but at the same time I'm encouraged by it, because it should mean the next album will be "unpopular" in the sense of not trying to be popular but by following an artistic goal. I hope she continues to captivate people with her music, although apparently she's a "American Poet" now, so I'm guessing she means the lyrics are what's going to get better. But even if she doesn't captivate, at least the "integrity" she talks about, with regards to being an artist, is risking being unpopular.

To my mind the interviewer was not trying to trip her up on various off-topic topics. She is merely guilty of leaving the music topic (which was covered ok actually, although wanting more details is always going to be a problem). The "Ride" video coverage was also interesting. However, the title of the interview sucks. I would have called it "Paradise Gained..." Just some quick thoughts: It's interesting that Lana showed some self-editing when she decided not to go into depth about her politics; so it's not like she just flies off with whatever she first thinks of. With regards to having some kind of personality disorder, a key attribute of "disorder" in my mind is UNawareness of ones contradictory views. So you need to distinguish the case of she just thinks differently at different times (but is aware of it) and where she might not be aware of it. If she were to say something bizarre (like "I never liked BTD") I'd be more concerned. That said, she doesn't seem hugely consistent with regard to whether social work, significant others, or caring about "the music or the art", is the "luxury" or the main event. However, maybe what she is getting at is that they interdepend on each other, so to say that she isn't too interested in putting out another album is to say that she has to work at her life some more to be inspired to say something musically. I would also say she is possibly forgetful. For example, she has mentioned (living) musical peers that she considers valid and worth following (Guns and Roses, Tyler, ASAP, Azealia Banks, Frank Ocean, Father John Misty, Antony and the Johnsons, Britney, Eminen, Chris Isaak). But for some reason she didn't want to mention anybody living in this article as influential (excepting Bob Dylan). Feminism? LDR has made statements about it in the past saying her songs reflect personal statements, not role model statements. In this interview, she says this again and something like (that is, imo) she is pro feminism and thinks reasonable progress has been made. She has stated in other interviews (one of the German ones?) that male chauvinism is not responsible for her negative reception in US music critic and blogosphere circles; it was more of a personal thing. I agree with her. Hence, we have the whole "Anti-me" statement, which I think is very accurate for some contexts, but may seem a bit odd here. Why should "devoting your life to the people around you and caring for them is the true road to general happiness" be something people would think "really strange"? She says specifically that it's NOT an anti-feminism thing, but an anti-her thing. I take this to be her generalizing from the fact that other pop stars (male or female) can have a different stage names, or sing submissively about love obsessions, but for some odd reason not her. I think she is a little overly pessimistic here in her characterization. For one she can do things, that other pop artists can't. However, the script also says she is laughing while she says this. Victims don't laugh. Patriotism? There does seem to be some disillusionments, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions they are centered on her critical or blogosphere reception. I am from the US, but I took her "Rah Rah... " quote to mean she's not uncritically loving of her country. Also, I would like to know in what sense she thinks she's less patriotic than anybody else; if tax brackets are an objective measure of such, she is more patriotic than me.

The Fantasia reference (Disney animated film from 1940) was quite intentional. Several mentioned that vibe in youtube comments (as did Colacunt above). The video is not very egotistical as the balance between Lana and the orchestra is very good. I googled 2 tears in solidarity and got a (very remote) Boston Marathon reference, but who can say? When you consider the two other videos of hers, recently released, I'm not too disappointed in the lack of flamboyance here. It sort of looks like something MTV wouldn't touch with the proverbial 10-foot pole (and maybe that's its point). So it will be kind of interesting if they end up showing it sometime.

So if something DOES kill you, does that make you stronger? The only sense I can make out of that would be it makes you stronger if it forces you to reinvent yourself (May-->Lizzy-->Lana). Still I wish all her inventions were out there taking hits in the pop music scene (even if the painful kind). It could only make pop music stronger. I think Lana's fanbase is actually growing on her earlier works on youtube, so it perplexes me she seems down on them. May Jailer was never attempted commercially, and Lizzy Grant was kind of mismanaged and aborted commercially. So I wish the words "unsuccessful" and "failure" could be qualified or probed a little more in these interviews to get a sense of what happened. Can anybody really know how much AKA Lizzy Grant would have sold if it hadn't been pulled? The article also doesn't ask about the intentions for the leaks/unreleased, which is another mystery, but may imply most interviewers don't know about them? Still a good article, though.

Well, if it’s the only way to get the leak officially produced, I’m happy with it. Maybe LDR will still do the backing vocals. So the leaks came from somebody hacking LDR’s email. That story makes sense, if we think that LDR had a bunch of songs in her email, just because, at times, she wanted to make it more as a songwriter than as a performer. BTW, there is a Youtube video of BMF (Nicola Parolin's) that cites "Written by Edward Gallegos", so maybe this song isn’t entirely Lana’s. The bad thing about leaks (other than people imprint on them as definitive versions) is that we know nothing about how many of them were produced. For example, does anyone even know if she uses live or virtualized musicians on the Break My Fall demo. This may be a stupid question, but I really don’t know how good the technology is.

The most interesting thing about the question is nailing down why people get headaches thinking about it. BTD is largely “retro” in the Hollywood movie score sense (30s and 40s), with exceptions (e.g. National Anthem, This is what makes us girls); AKA is “retro” in a blues/jazz and a 50s/60s rock sense, again with exceptions (e.g. Brite Lites, Gramma). Lyrics-wise BTD seems to be about love relationships, alcohol, nostalgia, and suicide (or at least dark) themes. AKA is more like white trash(?), Americana/nostalgia, and again dark themes. The two albums overlap the most lyrically, at least reckoned by themes. AKA is way more eclectic in terms of style; whereas BTD has a strict style sense that songs seem compelled to follow. An AKA done more as BTD would sound something like a more interesting Bell/Lynch This Train album. This Train was much less compelling than AKA, but still interesting and beautifully song. However, it suffered from its style cohesion; whereas the melodic strengths of BTD allowed style cohesion to work, imo. I don’t know what a more eclectic sounding BTD could sound like. For what an opinion is worth, Paradise seems more of a blend of AKA/BTD styles, not counting the Yayo overlap, and some drive toward the more commercial. Or maybe this is wishful thinking on my part. Others have divided the question into thinking about what songs on BTD sound most like AKA and vice versa. I’ll opine that Off to the Races, Blue Jeans, Video Games are Lizzy like, but given the breadth of Lizzy’s style, I don’t even know if that’s meaningful to say. I wouldn’t mind a Smarty Lanafied if it were done with a big band (Benny Goodman like) orchestration, but I’m not sure that would be a reflection of a BTD style. Finally, AKA should be re-released just to get rid of that pathology of thinking of Lizzy/Lana as different people. Ditto May Jailer. Also, it might disinhibit her from producing songs in those styles again.

I like Damn You and Hollywood's Dead much more, which I mention because YAB seems like it's from a similar style melody wise. YAB's good as a movie song and I saw somewhere Baz Llurhman, the director, had some input, so maybe "lyrics decay" -- in this song -- could be attributable to that. Do people generally think Adele's Skyfall is subpar from her notable songs? Just wondering. I don't know how to assess Florence, as I'm not as familiar with her work. But I will say her song seemed to be more about her (admittedly awesome) voice than the movie. Finally does the song help us understand the timing of the two covers better? Would it have motivated her to release them if she thought YAB were weak? Or would she be more inclined to release them if she thought the YAB were strong? Just idly speculating.

Glad this thread is still active! Like some others, my playlists just collect leaks/unreleased. So no overlap with BTD:TPE, AKA, Sirens, or God Bless America, except for some interesting demo variants. No thematic groupings, just a helluva lot of diversity. The one below is my favorite because of the slow acoustic songs, which I like to spread out as interludes. I have two other playlists (another 110 mins) and so would buy her next 5 releases sounds-unheard on the strength of these leaks. I would also buy the leaks, if she ever produced them. My favorite transitions: Dum Dum immediately followed by Live or Die sounds like she's accelerating into a new but related song. Axl Rose Husband / Last Girl on Earth, so utterly different, yet they seem related to me. Wish I could have crossfaded those. LDR_More (76mins): 1. Axl Rose Husband 2. Last Girl on Earth 3. Paradise 4. Prom Song 5. Elvis 6. She's Not Me 7. Dum Dum 8. Live or Die 9. Fordham Road 10. I Don't Wanna Go 11. Hundred Dollar Bill (the non-rock blues? version) 12. Push Me Down 13. Lucky Ones (demo) 14. Disco 15. Carmen (Acappela chorus version) 16. Jimmy Necco 17. Get Drunk 18. Jealous Girl 19. Moi Je Joue 20. Trash (Live) 21. Pinup Galore (Live)

It's odd that there is no producer cred on the lanaDelRey video where it says "No description available". Maybe LDR and Barrie snuck into Rick's studio to lay down the track while he was out of town. I know Rick's management said he produced it, but maybe that's Rick or his management covering for Lana's rogue behavior. Not a serious suggestion, but I still have a ways to 25 posts. I wish Nancy would tweet something about their cover. Has Leonard Cohen commented on his cover at all?

I admire her fascination with the past, which is not random. It sets her apart from mainstream pop, I think. I think Barrie did great job (a Scot singing like a Texan, who knew?) and her vocal backings and improv gave some uniqueness, or Lana-ness, despite a faithful cover. I hope, like others, her nostalgia will eventually extend to her own past (Lizzy/May) work, but I won't complain about her new stuff. I think "surprising" is a better word than "random", although random can also mean "cannot predict", which is valid. This is just days before the release of a new single. Very surprising.